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Long distance Range

Long distance Range

Wow that is weird.
My 2005 HCH last filled up 11.3 gal which nearly overflowed the tank with one bar left on the gas gauge. There are 20 bars on the gauge so one bar does roughly represent .6 gal on a 11.9 gal tank.
Anyone know why they changed the tank size? I prefer a bigger a tank.

Long distance Range

Long distance Range

If my Honda Civic Hybrid has a gas tank the size of those mentioned here, then the gas stations are routinely ripping me off with mis-calibrated pumps. I routinely pay for 14 gallons or a bit more, but a couple of weeks ago at an ARCO station in the Phoenix area, I bought 15.5 gallons! What is going on here?

Long distance Range

Long distance Range

Lee, I would write ARCO and the Better Business Bureau and the TV stations and the newspapers ("Action Line" in most places) and the mayor/City Hall with something like this. It's not bad enough they're ripping us off on gas prices, but when the pump says it put 15.5 gallons in a 13.2 gallon tank something's seriously wrong!

Long distance Range

"It's not bad enough they're ripping us off on gas prices, but when the pump says it put 15.5 gallons in a 13.2 gallon tank something's seriously wrong!"

Not necessarily. Volume of fuel pumped is typically corrected to 15 degrees C. Gasoline in particular is subject to volume changes with temperature. On the other hand the fuel tank volume is constant! Therefore actual volume pumped might be 13.2 gallons, but corrected volume would be 15.5. It's the only way to ensure that you get an accurate amount of "energy" when you refuel.

At higher temperatures, the same amount of gasoline will occupy a larger volume, and therefore contain less energy per unit of actual volume. Correcting to 15C ensures that you are NOT getting cheated, even though you think you are because the pump says you put in more than you think your car can hold.

It's one additional variable to take into account when calculating fuel economy and why an average over many tanks is needed to accurately establish fuel economy.

Long distance Range

Also forgot to add, fuel tank capacity is nominal, and is intended to be roughly the capacity after the average automatic shutoff of the delivery pump.

It's intended to allow a headspace for expansion of the gasoline if, for example, you park the car in the hot sun after filling up.

If you nurse it in, in fact, fill it right up to the brim, you get that headspace, plus the filler pipe volume, which will be well above the published fuel tank capacity for your car, and in fact can be as much as 10 liters (over 2 gallons).

But you are doing no favour to emissions if you overfill. Hydrocarbon emissions typically are a part of smog, and filling the tank so high can cause raw fuel to spill over into the charcoal hydrocarbon fume trap, overwhelming it and causing release of hydrocarbon emissions to the atmosphere.

We diesel owners are luckier, diesel doesn't expand nearly as much and we can fill up the headspace if we drive 10 miles or so immediately afterwards. On my Jetta that gives me an extra 200 km of tank range!

Long distance Range

I had the same thing happen to me. I pumped 15 gallons into the tank of my 2003 HCH. It was great, I was able to drive even further between fill ups. I wonder what the heck happened that time to be able to put the extra gallons of gas in. It only happened once. I tried shaking the car to see if I could get more in but that didn't work. I'll tell tell you what did work. I put acetone in the tank I went from 45 to 55 mpg.